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Balance of Souls: Perdition
Part 1 "Fùsōng!", Zhōng slapped his hands together and immediately before him a wall of tree roots spilled forth, writhing like the tentacles of a beast as they thrashed out from beneath the earth. They quickly rose to stand however, creating an impenetrable defense that the Heilig Pfeil simply plinked off of, uselessly. His hands then pressed over one another before being placed against the wall of trees. "Ruòmù!", he yelled again and each of the roots shattered, the bark across them all visibly cracking before exploding at Haiiro and Kaede in a barrage of splintering projectiles. Haiiro, undettered from the Balancer's counterattack, assumed a defensive position as the shards of bark that were shattered by Zhōng came careening towards the young Quincy. The bark hit him surprisingly heavily, causing Haiiro to slide back slightly due to the impetus of the numerous pieces of bark, however the attack had seemingly been repelled by the strength of the armour that was Kaede. "Damn it, Haiiro! You're gonna scratch my paintjob!", complained Kaede in mock protest. The powers of the Polymorph greatly dulled her sense of pain, a necessary trait when one was physically turning themselves into weapons or armour. "It'll do much more than that", replied Zhōng, catching them within earshot. He had descended to his knees, as if in prayer before digging his hands into the earth and drawing a pattern to either of his sides. "Rìběn!", he canted. What followed was a sudden weight that threatened to topple the two Quincy. The splinters shone with light and then suddenly exploded with fearsome power. A clearly impressive spell, requiring such a lead up as two others to preceed it, and it had only been further bolstered by the spell-enhancing pillars behind the old Balancer. Haiiro, not anticipating the force that the explosion would make, hurriedly used Hirenkyaku to try and escape the blast radius of Zhōng's spell, however due to his inattentiveness in reagrds to reacting to the Marshal's attack, both Haiiro and Kaede were caught in the explosion, the strength of it sufficient enough to knock the Quincies out of the air, causing them to fly off uncontrollably for a couple brief moments before managing to right themselves. Haiiro, stumbling slightly as he tried to tell up from down, finally righted himself as he faced Zhōng once again. "Okay, really wasn't expecting that!", the male Quincy blurted out through an exhilirated laugh, he sounded thouroughly shaken, though his laugh indicated he wasn't too frightened by the spectacle that he had just witnessed. "Itetete, okay he wasn't wrong about that one", said Kaede, a pained voice echoing inside the armour. "Don't let it happen again", she continued, immediately becoming demanding. "Alright, alright!", Haiiro responded, not wanting to ivoke the ire of his best defence, he began moving in an erratic pattern towards Zhōng, firing Heilig Pfeil's at the aging Balancer during the periods where he reappeared from moving, causing his attacks to appear as if they were converging upon their target in what looked like a firing range of glowing bolts. Feeling that his counter-offensive was sufficient, Haiiro stopped in his assault to once again take aim at Zhōng, however, instead of making a typical Heilig Pfeil, the Reishi that Haiiro was putting into his bow started to form chain links, increasing in size until it became a large chain, it's weight causing Haiiro to falter a little as it fully formed. "Schatten-kette!", Haiiro exclaimed, drawing back the Reishi chain with some difficulty before loosing it at Zhōng. Due to the weight of the chain and the force that it was shot with from Haiiro's bow, the chain flew towards the Marshal at an alarmingly fast rate, it's trajectory making it so that it headed towards Zhōng's left arm. The elderly man had responded in kind, charging straight through the onslaught of arrows that came his way, not bothering to avoid a single one as they perforated the outer layers of his flesh, turning him into a glowing blue pincushion. The assault ended and Zhōng found himself bound by the black chain of the final arrow, but the fiendish grimace that had overtaken his features left him looking unperturbed by these events. "That's right, struggle, fight, survive", he announced loudly as if commending his opponents. "Ugh, why do we always get the nutjobs?", Kaede decried with an echo-y sigh. Meanwhile Zhōng's body tensed up, veins rippling and tensing across his entirety. An explosion of physical strength rendered all of the arrows loose as they each snapped simultaneously and the Reishi that they had been made from dispersed into the air. All that remained was the black one, and Zhōng quickly took hold of it. "Moeru Hashi", he stated causing the chain to ignite in flames which shot down its length intent on burning whatever rested on the other end. The chains managed to keep their form for a small while before slowly starting to break down from the power of Zhōng's fire, the chainlinks breaking into reishi as it released the Marshal from it's grasp, however, not before allowing the fire to travel across the length of the chain towards Haiiro. Haiiro was taken aback by how his attacks were so easily repelled but he regained his composure, he dispersed his Schatten-kette, causing the rest of the chainlinks to follow suit and be eradicated. "Kaede, need a Seele.", the young Quincy urgently said. "Alright, be quick!", she replied whilst the chestplate of the armour opened up like an expanding ribcage, exposing the less protected form of Haiiro within its confines. Seeing this, Zhōng flung himself into action. He wasn't one to cast aside an opportunity, especially one such as this. His body was a blur of motion, shrouded in the signature swiftness of Shunpo. His Jiūkǔndao was drawn back into his hand and the man drove himself into a frightening lunge, intent on piercing through the heart of the young Quincy. Haiiro responded with a similar level of swiftness, he used Hirenkyaku to immediately distance himself from Zhōng, snatching his remaining Seele Schneider from his belt and readying it in his bow, just as Zhōng appeared in front of him. Haiiro, despite still having his defense comprimised raised his arm to block the incoming attack, holding his breath as he did so in preparation for Zhōng's strike. The distance gained had been enough time for both of them, for Haiiro to get his weapon, and for Kaede to seal back up their mutual line of defense. But, though an attack had been expected. The previously charging Zhōng was nowhere to be seen. Until the screech of metal rattled out into the air and pressure built up behind them. In a single instant of distraction, when the Quincy pair were occupied with their own preparations, Zhōng had moved to the back and continued his plunge. The blade struck the armour, and despite its momentum, proved unable to pierce through it. The force still tossed them forward, however, and a gasp of pain that only Haiiro was privy to, made it more than clear that blunt trauma still really hurt. Haiiro, not ready to be struck from behind, was flung from his position back down towards the earth, landing heavily on the ground and sliding a fair distance from where he landed, gouging out a groove into the soil that he had landed in. Despite taking such a heavy hit, with the help of Kaede's reishi strings, Haiiro bounced up into a standing position and took aim with his Seele Schneider, the "sword" drawing in all of the scattered reishi that was released from Haiiro's previous attacks, allowing the blade to grow to nearly double it's original length. "Come on then!", Haiiro excalimed, keeping his Seele Schneider ready, waiting for Zhōng to move in closer before taking the shot. "No", Zhōng yelled back with confidence. He was not to be provoked, at least not in the typical sense. "Instead, allow me to show you that which I did not have the chance to unveil the first time we met", his body had thrown itself into a rhythm, a pattern of movements that heralded an unseen blade. Several scars cut perfectly into the earth around the laid-down archer, and from those earthen wounds rose black transparent walls, reaching high enough so that they stood even taller than the engorged Seele Schneider that sat strung on the boy's bow. They were walls made out of converted Reiatsu, and so they would not be cut by that blade that stole Reishi from every nip of its blade. A roof was added to these walls, filling in as soon as the walls had risen and prevented any obvious escape for the two Quincy. Zhōng's dance continued unabated, one motion signaled the conjuring of a diamond-shaped spear of blackened flame, a mirrored motion conjured a second on the opposite side of the man. A fair distance out, a massive radius of similar spears began to manifest just above the ground. A perfect ring that was filled with these ethereal bullets, each of which were aimed at the box and its prisoners. "This, Mokushiroku Yomo no Kabe, is one of the greatest spells in my arsenal, it is a rare treat that I get to use it", the old man spoke with his dance seemingly finished. "Consider yourself honoured, that you get to die by my hand in this manner". His hand moved to signal, and the spear on his right fired down on the box to smack against its roof only to be seemingly rebounded. Then, like a beacon this called in half of those that had formed around the box causing them to pelt it in much the same way as the first. They continuously hammered off the walls only to be repelled and shattered. And it repeated a second time when he motioned for the left spear and the volley tied to it. When all was done, the spears had shattered and the walls were now aglow with victorious light. They shattered briefly afterward and the environment was quickly rocked by numerous apocalyptic pulses. Explosions rang out for miles, caking the entire area in a massive dust cloud, leveling houses and eradicating many dead Quincy and Balancer along the way. Haiiro found himself exposed to the elements, his armour gone. Kaede was to his side, she who had received the brunt of this catastrophic spell. Her body was blackened with brutal bruises and burning blisters, the girl herself had all but lost consciousness. Staring off listlessly into space, her mind blank with pain. Haiiro, having only been stunned by the attack thanks to Kaede, recovered and turned to see his partner's battered form next to him. His eyes widening in shock, Haiiro released his bow and reallocated his Seele Schneider into his left hand, reversing his grip so that he could carefully pick her up in his arms before using Hirenkyaku to take her away from Zhong, placing her down a long distance away from the Balancer. "That's it.", Haiiro growled, he spun on his heel before disappearing from sight with the use of Hirenkyaku, appearing alarmingly close to Zhōng, his bow once again summoned and his Seele Schneider drawn far back into the bow before it was loosed with a great amoung of force, the large weapon speeding it's way towards the Marshal. Haiiro, not intent on letting up his assault, used Hirenkyaku once again to move to Zhōng's side, firing continous stream of arrows at the Balancer in an attempt to distract him from Haiiro's main attack. Their methodology was different, but the application remained the same. A trite motion that Zhōng intended to crush hard enough that no opponent, in this realm or the next, would ever think of encroaching on his vision with it ever again. He stepped back, a single fluid movement that got him out of reach of the oncoming Seele Schneider, but nonetheless allowed him to be perforated by arrows once again. They pelted against him like droplets of rain, poking holes in his clothes and etching themselves into his flesh like barbed hooks. He ignored them outright, his eyes were focused entirely on the silver sword that flew downward. His hand flew out just as it passed and just like that, he'd caught the Quincy's tool. It was the height of overconfidence, the pinnacle of his boldness. The attempt could've severed his hand just as easily as it could have stolen such a weapon. But it paid off. He flung himself into battle immediately. He had beset Haiiro in a hurry, both of his blades swinging at the young Quincy who weaved back and forth lithely, evading each cut just barely and too intent on living to waste time preparing Hirenkyaku. "Why do you refuse to face me?!", Zhōng roared in demand. "Is it fear? Is it cowardice? Or, is it ignorance?", his assault stopped for a moment and the elderly figure drew himself into a stance. A humming sword of blue light in his right, a shadowy mist enveloped dagger in his left. Haiiro kept quiet in response to Zhōng's rantings, straightening up as he recovered from the Balancer's onslaught. The Quincy glared at the Marshal, his eyes piercing daggers into the elderly man as he raised his left hand, holding it out in front of him as his other hand reached out to the spokes that stuck out at the wrist of his Sanrei Glove. He had no other weapons apart from his bow, nor had he any other way to injure his opponent, yet Haiiro needed to end his adversary, especially so after what they had done to Kaede. "Vollständig, activate!", Haiiro bellowed, snapping one of the spokes of his glove, causing it to be positively blown off the Quincy's arm, as it did so, Haiiro was enveloped in a large pillar of light, the top of it forming the Quincy insignia before fading away, revealing Haiiro from within it. The most notable difference was his appearance, he was wearing a black trenchcoat which extended down towards his calves, the collar of which was upturned at the neck, he also started forming reishi from behind his back and above his head, the spirit particles coming together in order to form a pair a light blue wings and a flat, circular halo respectively. Finally, Haiiro's bow, instead of looking as if it was made from a silvery metal like it had previously been, appeared to be made out of a flickering, almost wild mass of black reishi, it's form resembling his previous bow somewhat. Without making a sound, Haiiro quickly drew back his bow and fired a plume of Heilig Pfeil at Zhōng, however, the arrows appeared to be thicker and brighter than how they were previously as they flew at the Balancer at an alarmingly faster pace than before, already getting closer to him despite only being just recently loosed from Haiiro's bow. His response was just as quick. Clapping either of his hands against his breast, light built up in his lungs, a visible gold glow beneath his skin. It flew upwards, through his throat and then spilled into the air as a massive gust of fire to repel the arrows in an inferno of burning breath. All the while his arms repeated the motion, slapping against his biceps this time before being cast outward, as if to evoke the image of wings. The visage of a dragon's head appeared behind him, summoning itself from nothing only to engulf the Balancer between its jaws. A second, far more widespread blast of flames accompanied them to weed out any of the other arrows, as well as the Quincy behind them. He would not hide, Zhōng made certain of that. "I asked you, boy, is it fear, ignorance, or cowardice?", he said again once the flames had died away. "Time and again, you refuse to engage me properly, hiding behind mere feints and backpedalling", he twirled the Seele Schneider between his fingers, a boastful showing no doubt. "I will have none of it!", he cried out. "You've left your friend to be harmed in your stead, you've been deprived of this weapon, and even transformed yourself". "It will not make you my equal, unless you fight me!". Haiiro, reappeared a fair distance above Zhōng, his body smoking slightly from being briefly caught in the flames of the Balancer's counterattack. He still didn't respond to Zhōng's words, however, instead of shooting more arrows at the Marshal, he instead released his bow, it's form disappearing into the wind as Haiiro outstretched his arms out in front of him. Reishi from his wings started flowing and pooling into his hands, creating a pole of light before morphing into what appeared to be a single bladed bladed polearm, looking as if it was a mix of a glaive and a naginata, as it's creation started to finalise itself, the blue glow of the reishi shone for it's last time as it faded, revealing the weapon to be of a darkened metallic quality, it's length easily matching the length of Haiiro's body. Haiiro spun his new weapon over his head before plunging at Zhōng, his blade aiming to swipe at what was previously his own Seele Schneider, aiming to cut right through it's reishi empowered cutting edge and into Zhōng's body with the use of Sklaverei, the young Quincy using the incredible length of the polearm to keep a close, but still fair distance from Zhōng himself. The old man intercepted the attack instead. The polearm missed the Seele Schneider but found itself a different victory in the process, a guttural squelch accompanied by the rushing splatter of blood saw the axe head slice clean through the elderly Balancer's chest. It was a clearly intended effect, as Zhōng looked none too perturbed by the prospect. Even driving himself further down its length to get closer to Haiiro. "At last you enter the fray", his voice was filled with excitement at the prospects he found himself with. His arms came down on the polearm that had begun to fade away, smashing it like brittle glass, allowing the Marshal to stagger back as the Reishi that comprised his heart and associated organs disintegrated. His left arm quickly drove his dagger into his other arm, causing a change to rapidly take place. "Shìfàng", he stated whilst laughing through his own death throes. The dagger melded into his arm, shifting from metal into an organic object that forcibly tensed his veins and muscles, making it all the more obvious as the internal extremities began to shift and mutate. The arm bulged to twice its original size, eyes emerged across the skin in various sizes. The hand snapped visibly and the fingers broke away, altering themselves into eery tendrils on the edge of the long appendage just in time to catch the falling Seele Schneider in their clutches. An eye sprouted at the centre of the arm's end. This mutation spread beyond, turning parts of the Balancer's skin purple in the process as bulging veins popped elsewhere on his body. His chest had closed up, a large eye replacing the wound with its piercing gaze. "Fall deeper and deeper into the pits of madness", his words were laced with gaseous mists spilling out of his mouth as well as seeping out from the corners of his various eyes. Where he had once controlled the pestilence, he had now become it. To make matters worse, he plunged the Seele Schneider into the newly opened eye below it, the blue blade summarily dispersing in an instant. Veins coursed out of the wounded iris and the once silver blade was similarly dyed purple and a new blade was soon emitted from it: a virulent edge of black disease. Part 2 "Zhāng, are you okay?", asked Fāng frantically. Her eyes scanned the area repeatedly after the interruption that was their commander having joined the fray, only to be tossed out by the arrival of even more Quincy. Her sister's release sent a quaking shiver down her spine, a ripple so heavy that it threatened to snap her bones if she wavered in even the slightest ways. It was something she had never witnessed. It was something she wished she would never have had to witness. But it stood there, before her, her own twin embracing the death sentence that was Shìfàng. There was a saving grace in all this she thought, at least with her own presence perhaps she could save Zhāng from the inevitability that swallowed up so many other Balancers. She was sure that she would stop it, and like that the quaking within stopped. Below, on the ground, Zhāng gripped the fleshy halberds that had spawned from her back and hastily swung them in random directions. An instant after the motion, whatever had been nearest to those swings, no matter how far away they were found themselves severed. Walls, the manifested spikes that the Marshal had crafted during his brief appearance, even whole buildings found themselves split in half. "I won't be okay until I see these lowly rats carved into a million pieces", Zhāng declared in unrepentant rage. Ho-jin Kwon stood amongst the omnidirectional destruction, completely dumbfounded. "Great! First an enemy general joins the fray, and now the schoolchildren are here!", he shouted with a frown on his dust-covered face. "This could not possibly get any worse-", he continued only to lean forward and spontaneously vomit at the pavement in front of him. He staggered as if drunk, his vision suddenly blurry. He had not been worn down by the battle just yet. True, he had sustained some damage but thanks to Blut Vene he could keep going. This must have been something else... The enemy commander! He must have administered some sort of poison when he had managed to stab Kwon in the back. And to think he had been so close... He had been about to employ against the wounded Balancer to finish her off. With her out of the picture, he and Donovan would have been able to make short work of the remaining one. But no, everything had to go to Hell, of course... "You know what!?", he exclaimed, straightening up abruptly through sheer willpower. "FUCK YOU!" All of a sudden the Sternritter shone like a beacon, a column of light erupting upward from his body toward the sky. "Cassiel!", he screamed. Calling forth his Ho-jin sprouted a pair of gleaming Reishi wings from his back, each of them composed of six wide, flat strands with arrow-shaped tips. In addition, a six-armed halo materialised above his head, all of its arms featuring triangular tips as well. The surge of power revitalised the Korean Sternritter's failing body. He knew that in the long term it might have proved highly dangerous to his health, but that did not matter at the moment. What mattered was to eradicate the enemy as quick as possible. "I've got a transformation too, bitch! Taste it!", he exclaimed at Han Zhāng whilst aiming Beyonlugi at her. With those words he let out a sustained barrage of Heilige Pfeile, the technique known as . Magnified by the fact that rather than fire from the arrow shelf the projectiles were spawned simultaneously from each of the six points of his bow, the increase of firepower was substantial considering his generally limited offensive capacity. "That's right!", Zhāng responded as her body heaved through a powerful swing. Her organic weapons had been swung in a wide arc in front of her, far out of the reach of the oncoming projectiles. Too far to have blocked them with their own momentum. But the forward most arrow split in half anyway. So too did numerous buildings that presented an unimpeded view between them and the Balancer. The process repeated, each arrow, one by one, snapping in the presence of an invisible force, though only a moment passed, the sequential nature of the attack was clear. Whatever had been at the forefront was bisected immediately, those just out of reach had seemingly earned themselves some time, however limited it might have been in reality. Ho-jin ceased fire in the wake of his failure. For a while he stood silently, watching with exasperation as the city around him was crumbling into dust. Suddenly, he felt something tapping him lightly on the shoulder. All colour was washed out from his environment and the noise of destruction became somewhat dampened. "What the...!?", he asked, turning around rapidly. It was Donovan. The unassuming Quincy was standing right beside him, his left palm resting on Kwon's shoulder. "We need to relocate, Mr. Kwon", he urged. Ever more confounded, Ho-jin followed him nonetheless. The two moved a distance away with the use of Hirenkyaku. "Can you get your hand off me?", asked Kwon eventually with mild annoyance. "They'll see you if I do", explained Joseph, rather embarrassed. "Sorry." The Korean rolled his eyes. "Okay, whatever. What do you want? Got any epic plan to turn the tides of battle?" "Frankly, I'm at a loss", admitted Donovan after a short while. "I don't think I was able to hit them once despite my Schrift. Their reflexes are supernatural." "Well, who would've thought", grumbled Kwon. "I wouldn't hurt them even if I hit them. You see, all I can do is alter trajectories. I don't have any fancy finisher moves." The two remained silent for some time before Donovan's face expression changed slightly. "I can hurt them, but I can't hit them", he mused. "You can't hurt them even though you can hit them..." Ho-jin widened his eyes. "Now that is a curious observation", he nodded. "We'll combine our powers. But first, what are those two doing right now?", wondered Kwon as he gazed toward the female Balancers. They had remained out in the open. Zhāng stood there, locked up in her own mind as her body went through furious, but repetitive, motions. She swung and she swung, her single arm directing the four large blades of bone and sinew that stuck out from her back. The arc of every halberd caused the bisection of whatever stood in the way. Houses, still standing or already fallen. Rubble, corpses, even pockets of dust found themselves cut in twain. She had entered a world where distance no longer mattered. She would swing, and they would be severed. But it wasn't enough, to simply stand on this precipice. She could still feel her arm, the rush of blood in her veins, the tensing of her muscles, the aches and shifts as the battle flowed, but she was all too aware that her arm was missing. Her body felt light, she could taste the metal of her own sword coursing through her body, made all the more prevalent when her eyes caught sight of her popping silver-tinted veins. "I won't be satisfied, not until I see their very souls twist in anguish", she stated with a tone of false calm. She was seething and the only one who couldn't admit it was herself. Not far from that, Fāng found herself collecting sand into a small mound, she had resolved to protect her sibling, to prevent the ill fate that awaited those who awoke their Shìfàng. She couldn't do this by using her own, she had been lucky enough to avoid the injuries of her twin. She had tricks that she could fall back on, but they were few and far between. The power she wielded, as she saw it, was mediocre at best and the limits of her Jiūkǔndao were easily stressed. So she'd taken a different approach. Once the mound beneath her had reached a respectable height, she drew up a shard of broken stone and used it to cut etchings into her palms. A symbol of a cross in one hand, an oval in the other. She drew them together over the mound when she was done, the blood trickling into the dirt followed by an infusion of her spiritual energy. She raised the mound into her hands to reveal that it had changed from dried earth into refined amber dust, which she slowly inhaled. "The fuck is she doing!?", the Korean Quincy widened his eyes. "Getting high on dirt?" Despite the spectacle of destruction brought by Zhāng his attention shifted toward her twin, whose actions appeared far more out of ordinary. "Let's do it, Mr. Kwon!", insisted Donovan. "She's distracted right now!" "Okay", agreed Ho-jin. With a single motion he dispelled his Quincy bow. He was not in the best shape, although he could still fight. A chance presented itself and he was eager to try it, battle-worn or not. "Three... two... one...", counted down Joseph as his rifle hummed with accumulating energy. "Fire!" Projectile of charged energy escaped the long barrel with a thunder only the two of them could hear. However, the form of the bullet itself quickly became perceptible when it left the null zone maintained by Donovan's Schrift. Suddenly, the projectile turned to the right and vanished between the ruins once Kwon took control of it with the Vector. It meandered between the buildings at high speed before it emerged from an alley behind Fāng and sped toward the back of her head. While the shot travelled the distance, Fāng found herself surrounded by rising stone. Random pebbles and stone chips, the rubble and broken fragments of numerous buildings rose into the air around her, signalling the beginning of something. A particularly large chunk of stone rose up behind the young woman, but it served as more of a warning than impediment. The empowered bolt bored straight through the limply levitating rock to strike Fāng's skull, a quick but sickening squelch of broken flesh and irritated blood ringing in the air as the woman promptly collapsed to the floor. "RAAAAAAH!", screamed her sibling, keenly aware of the significance of those sounds, no matter how quiet they happened to be. Her arm swung up a storm in one direction, and her numerous sinewy appendages swung in several others. Her onslaught was random and unfocused, she couldn't see her opponents, of course. She was simply left with the blood-steeped hope that she would hit them as buildings at every distance began to topple in clean cut halves. She was screaming to the Heavens, and her Reiatsu followed suit, a powerful tremor causing the earth to tremble beneath her feet. "I got her!", exclaimed Kwon, satisfaction fighting for dominance with shock. "Watch out!", shouted Donovan immediately afterward. Imperceptible or not they were still as susceptible to damage as usual should an attack connect. And in her blind fury the other Balancer twin unleashed a vicious multidirectional assault that posed a real threat. Acting out of reflex Ho-jin leapt to his left, using the Vollständig-enhanced agility to evade Zhāng's attack. However, Joseph, still in his base state and with an oversized rifle in his hands reacted noticeably slower. As such, once he found himself sliding through the air on miniature Reishi platforms, the appendages reached him with their tips and left two moderate incised wound on his right leg and left arm. Damage and fatigue were accumulating, the enemy was surprisingly strong and last, but not least, Kwon was visible again. Whilst it seemed they had managed to eliminate one of them the other one was ready to tear them to shreds. With that kind of power Donovan needed something more than a mere charged bullet to counter her. Strenuous or not, it was the time. "Meumahiel", he said somewhat meekly. Inner spiritual energy as well as ambient particles from the atmosphere accumulated to assemble the form of his Vollständig. Slightly unusual form. His eyes turned milky white and black markings emerged on his face and hands from beneath his Sternritter uniform. The clothes themselves became oddly bleak, as if less defined, changing into little more than a few large patches of material to cover his body. An elliptical halo manifested above his head. Then, a pair of wings sprouted from his back, more like impossibly black tears in the fabric of reality than physical or energy appendages. In the end, his spiritual weapon turned into a modified, hand-held variant of the with a cable attached directly to the Quincy's right arm. "Mr. Kwon!", he shouted in the aftermath, unwilling to engage the opponent on his own despite the release. Zhāng had made a beeline for Ho-jin the moment he had entered into her line of sight. Her skill with Shunpo carried her towards him at viciously quick speeds, her onslaught continuing unimpeded, a whirling dervish of chaotic slaughter. Her hand had let go of the halberd it had once held in all of this, leaving them all to swing on their own whilst her fingers flitted through a series of signs she had performed before. "Hyō, Kai, Retsu, Zen!", she called, though her voice was lost in the wind of motion. "Shōshaju!", she belted angrily and came to a halt. Just in time for the black arms to begin ascending from Ho-jin's shadow. Kwon widened his eyes. He did not ask for this. He was an architect. Somewhere in the World of the Living, in South Korea, ordinary families were leading ordinary lives in houses designed by a man currently locked in vicious combat with an ancient spiritual being. All of this because one of his ancestors decided it would be a great idea to chase man-eating wraiths and a bunch of sword-wielding psychopomps with a shiny energy bow. "Fuck off!", he yelled in frustration. His combat abilities were average and his Schrift could not kill directly. However, with creative use the Vector was quite a versatile tool. Offence, defence, support... As such, in a rapid response to immediate threat Kwon reacted on instinct and deployed the Schrift to redirect any moving entity within his vicinity away. With such a basic purpose and specific point of reference he required little time and effot to pour power into the technique. In the meantime, Donovan mentally chastised himself for shouting... whilst still imperceptible. Not that his colleague could afford to listen to desperate pleas anyway. Consequently, the American Quincy dispelled the null zone in order to become visible to the senses again. Shortly afterward he assumed a proper firing stance and shot three energy projectiles toward the attacking Balancer, each one of them released with a thunderous roar. The attacks had entered a cycle with that. Zhāng had attacked Ho-jin only to find her onslaught curving off around and away from him, Joseph unleashed an attack with which the sound was more than enough to discern a threat and response. Her spindly, spear carrying limbs swung into motion, swift but lacking in force. Of course, the motion was all that was needed to conjure the imperceptible slicing associated with these autonomous-seeming weapons. Just like that, the shots the vanishing Quincy had unleashed were split into less effective halves, doomed to disperse or explode as their energy spilled into the air. Zhāng hadn't even bothered to look his way, her sights fully locked on Kwon, the man she was blaming for the loss of her arm, and the life of her sister. The shadow-y hands of Shōshaju saw a second rise. Ho-jin's reserves of spiritual enegy were depleting fast. Of course, he could draw the ambient Reishi articles from the atmosphere but that wasn't an effortless process either. This must have been the fault of that stab wound. In consequence, there was no point in struggling with that unknown spell. Rather, he used the brief window of opportunity when he initially pushed the ethereal limbs away in order to lift himself on miniature platforms of Reishi, high toward the darkened sky. He summoned his Reishi bow out of reflex, yet was unsure what to do with it. In the meantime, Donovan found his firepower inadequate again. He used Blut Vene to close his wounds, which quickly became quite an inconvenience. However, the negative impact on his ability to cause damage was far too obvious. Somewhat anxious about the idea, he nonetheless redirected the flow of energy to Blut Arterie. Pain immediately made itself known, though he did not see any other way to solve the issue. Seeing that the enemy apparently disregarded him in spite of his earlier attack he charged the modified autocannon. Employing his Reishi manipulation skills in order to anchor himself to the ground, he then began a prolonged burst of crackling bolts of spiritual energy directed at Zhāng. Effective or not, his goal was to draw her attention away from the Korean Quincy and offer him a moment of respite. She was already incensed. Her focus entirely on Ho-jin as the one she had blamed for this entire situation, her mind was stewing in rage, casting off facts in favour of blind aggression. It didn't matter what he'd actually done at this point, her mind decided he was the problem and made up its own justifications as to why he had to die. His ascent, and the continued assault from the other Quincy prevented her from continuing on with Shōshaju, with Kwon's shadow shrinking, the black mass of hands had shrunk and found themselves unable to reach. Instead of clinging on to the inevitable; she embraced the Quincy's approach, moving higher and higher into the air to avoid Donovan's shots. At the same time, the limbs, freed from their previous task, carved swathes into the earth below, and this time Zhāng performed a set of seals, 'bind', 'replicate', 'sustain': Mugen Kusari. Foregoing the manipulation of Ho-jin's shadow, Zhāng created a black mass of her own from which a sea of chains began to spew forth, beginning another attempt at entrapping her wayward prey. Too slow, too slow. There was so much Kwon could do. This battle had been dragging on for far too long and he felt the full adverse effects of that. The chains wrapped around his legs and began climbing higher, restraining the Quincy high above the ground. With a bit of luck he managed to stick his left arm in a way that he could still theoretically fire from Byeonlyugi, if somewhere into the distance. Not that this was any problem. "KEEP SHOOTING, DONOVAN!", he yelled at the top of his lungs. The American Quincy did not hesitate. He continued the barrage of supercharged energy bolts, this time led by the Vector. With the power of his Vollständig Ho-jin proceeded to alter their trajectories in the most imaginative ways possible, circling across the sky in shining arcs, although all of them converged upon a single target: the persistent Balancer who had bound him. Sōzōshin. A race of spiritual beings, that though they resembled them, did not share a common ancestry with Humans. They were always spirits, and boasted incredible power. Regal and dignified beings, they were ripped from the world by a mysterious plague, one that targeted them and only them. Few in number now, it was rare that one would find one, though the echelons of the Balancers carried many among their number that predated the better known history of Soul Society, these Sōzōshin included. There was one key way to spotting a Sōzōshin from among their peers: their regeneration. Humans, even those in soul form, required extended periods of time in order to start the natural healing process, a Sōzōshin however would begin healing after very brief periods. For Zhāng, this had yet to start. The burns and cuts she had sustained should have healed by now, but they hadn't. Her arm, as key as it had been to her fury should have been recovering, if slowly, but it wasn't. She had expended her energy, and her reserves beyond that. Her powers, her abilities, her spells, they all came at a cost. One that she had long stopped keeping track of. Adrenaline flooded in and made her pain go away, rage flooded in and made concerns for stamina or Reiryoku negligible. So it was then, that even when pelted by Donovan's empowered arrows, she remained standing. She looked Ho-jin in the eyes, her own conveying her intent. She was exhausted, drained, dead, but she was determined to drive that man over the brink. She would not stop. She would've vocalized it, scream obscenities and further stew in her rage, but one particular shot had destroyed her jaw, one side having collapsed entirely, exposing blood, muscle, and shattered bone as the loosened structure hung limply from her face. Her appendages rose around her, plunging forward in an attempt to skewer Kwon from within his captivity. They struck with unceasing precision, almost oblivious to the fatal injuries the Balancer had suffered. "I could redirect those", thought Kwon as his body was being impaled time after time. The battle was exhausting. He was bound in an unknown binding spell. The Vector was occupied with something else. All he could do was to briefly stare as his death came upon him, an ironic mirror of the fate befalling his opponent at the same time. Gushes of blood rose from his chained body and escaped from his open mouth. Beyonlyugi vanished when the force maintaining its physical shape faded away. Cut away from his temporary restraints Ho-jin Kwon began his final descent, plummeting limply to the ground followed by a trail of blood. "Oh no", whispered Donovan with his eyes widened. He leapt toward his fallen comrade as he crashed into the ground. Sternritter N stood beside Sternritter V and gazed upon his mutilated body. "At least... it's over...", wheezed Kwon with a grimace that was probably supposed to be a friendly smile. His face expression froze in that state when his life abruptly ended. As had Zhāng's. Though she kept her place high in the air, seeing Ho-jin fall, seeing his light snuffed out, was all it took for her rage to subside. Her breaths came slowly, only getting slower each time she took in the air, her organs were pooling with blood and any real effort would have seen her spewing out torrents of red fluid. It was a full minute before her looming presence finally ebbed away, and the Sōzōshin's body came to match the lifelessness in her eyes. Plummeting, she fell to a solitary grave. Two of the last light's of the Sōzōshin flickered, and quietly, faded. Joseph was a history teacher, so he knew the meaning of a Pyrric victory well. There was not a trace of satisfaction or relief as he looked upon the mutilated body of his fallen colleague, corpses of Soldaten and the ruined settlement around him. Seemingly, the Quincy had won this particular battle, however, he was the only one left alive to recognise this dubious victory. The form of his Vollständig dissipated, too strenuous to maintain given his bad shape. Blut Vene was activated once again to close his wounds. With that, Donovan gazed upon the battlefield once again, grimly, holding his rifle in standby position. Part 3 Though taken aback by the Balancer's sudden horrific transformation, Haiiro put the thoughts that seeped into his head to the back to his mind, instead focusing solely on the thing that was once a Marshal of The Balancers of Souls. Once again, he was at a disadvantage in close combat, noting the copious amounts of gaseous poison being forced out of Zhōng's breathing as well as the now dyed Seele Schneider that the Balancer wielded in his deformed 'hand'. Yet despite all this, ranged attacks weren't getting him anywhere either. "Right, let's try this then.", Haiiro muttered, summoning another polearm from the Reishi that was being absorbed by his new form, Haiiro started to fly towards Zhōng, heading straight toward the old man before making a sharp turn as he began to get close the poison cloud and subsequently unleashing his attack. As he turned, the wings that were floating began to move of their own accord, becoming darkened as the did so before suddenly shooting out towards Zhōng, the 'feathers' assuming the appearance of spikes at the rushed towards the Balancer. After the finishing touches of his transformation, the elderly man had become lucid... Somewhat. He could think with a degree of clarity that had been fading from him recently. Likely as a result of the pain he'd went through in releasing his true power. With that clarity of thought he dug into his memories. Practiced steps and maneuvers, motions, footing, all of the necessary tricks of swordplay. Though they stood in the air, the old man choreographed as if he was on a stage. A sweeping motion to one side, his gargantuan appendage swaying in front of him. His virulent blade hissed as it flowed through the air to nip at the encroaching "feathers". A single step, as practitioners would say, had put him in a position to avoid or defend against his attacker with no harm to himself. While looking at Zhōng dodging his numerous attacks with ease, the young Quincy grimaced at the effects of the Balancer's simple movements, looking on as his Reishi wings began to become less solid as their Reishi was deconstructed through the use of the tainted Seele Schneider. Thinking quickly and somewhat rashly, Haiiro inhaled deeply before charging headfirst at Zhōng, preparing to swing his polearm at the Balancer's left hip, aiming to at least perform the attack without getting countered by the now purple blade that was once his, ready to utilise Hirenkyaku immediately if he was in such a danger, hoping that he could last long enough in the purple fog without succumbing to it's effects. Though he had observed an increased clarity in his own thinking, something that granted him some access to logic and procedure, the conflict still hampered Zhōng's capacity for rationality. Self-preservation had long since gone out the window, a keenly obvious fact given his grim, mutated physique. He could've attempted to dodge, to mitigate oncoming damage, but the moment his mind accepted that he would be hurt, he had decided to forego evasion entirely. It was no surprise then that the halberd of blackened Reishi broke right into the old man's flesh, leaving a deep, gaping wound. It did not fill with blood, however. Instead the new cavity spewed forth poison and disease, an infectious aura that stained the large polearm, eating at the Reishi that made up its form. Haiiro couldn't react in time to stop the spread of infection poison seeping in the Reishi bonds of his polearm, instead opting to discard the weapon, breaking down the structure of it's uninfected form in an attempt to stop the Balancer from stealing it as well. Following from his momentary retreat, Haiiro swung his leg in Zhōng's general direction, with less of intent of hitting his target and more distracting the monstrous Balancer while he used Hirenkyaku to get out of the poison cloud that was steadily forming and catch his breath. Zhōng hadn't even rendered the attack, that Haiiro had used to springboard his retreat. A kick, as powerful as something like that could be, was less effective in the hands of a Human, especially against someone who's body was so overwhelmed with toxins that it was doubtful his pain receptors even worked anymore. The old man's eyes followed the retreating figure on reflex. He couldn't actually see him, hidden within the sheer otherworldly speed that movement techniques presented, but his spiritual senses could keep track of him and so his eyes played catch up. When he was sure that iteration of Hirenkyaku was coming to an end, that was when Zhōng made his move. His fingers jammed their way into his own throat, causing the muscles in his neck to pulse and spasm before the veins began to bulge outward. The purple fog that was spilling forth from his orifices began to recede only to be spewed forth from his mouth like the breath of a dragon. A torrent of miasma and death, threatening to swallow Haiiro whole. As Haiiro emerged out from his Hirenkyaku, he had hardly the time to gasp for a breath of air before being alerted to the tidalwave of noxious gas heading toward him at a quickening pace. In an act of mild panic, Haiiro flew up and away from the gas in order to recover more before it became a threat once again, catching a few more gasps of air before stumbling slightly, his vision blurring ever so slightly as the Quincy righted himself. "Guess holding my breath wasn't quite enough, need to finish this quickly.", he spluttered, shaking his head in a futile attempt to shake the poison out of his system, summoning his dyed bow, Haiiro sped towards Zhōng, avoiding the plume of gas that was still expanding the air while also quickly flying aruond to Zhōng's back, using the old man's lack of clarity to his advantage as he summoned what appeared to be a somewhat miniturized version of his polearm, drawing it back a fair bit before loosing the oversized 'arrow', the tip of the blade approaching Zhōng's back quickly as Haiiro used Hirenkyaku to move to the Balancer's side, lining up another shot at his opponent's arm. It had appeared that his opponent had forgotten how easily Zhōng had gotten the drop on him in the past. He wasn't nearly as sluggish as Haiiro assumed. The gaseous storm stopped as soon as it had missed its target, and the elderly figure spun on his heels to intercept his foe. His massive writhing arm swung up defensively to block the first shot and he breathed out another torrent of miasmic death, all but ensuring the second shot would be unable to reach him. Despite the counter-measure that was taken place in order to stop Haiiro's second attack, the wave of poison met no resistance of any form as is swept through the air, passing by the location where Haiiro had previously been standing, instead, the young Quincy had dispelled his bow and arrow in an attempt to feign the Balancer, instead flying far underneath the fog that Zhōng had most recently spat out, summoning yet another Polearm and inhaling deeply before entering Zhōng's general vicinity, shooting towards the old Marshal before preparing to slash at him, aiming to cut deep into the deformed man's chest and hopefully end the fight quickly, before the effect of the poison mist got to Haiiro. It played out the same way once again. The fog was halted and Zhōng moved to respond. He shot towards Haiiro, raising his massive arm to strike down on the oncoming polearm. At his angle, Zhōng's limb would intercede against the spear that sought to pierce his heart, and its weight would surely knock it out of Haiiro's hands. The Seele Schneider crested atop the arm would also be in perfect reach of striking the young Quincy. With this he hoped to put a swift end to the fight, with a glorious two-fold motion. In an albeit sloppy attempt to get past Zhōng's raised defenses, Haiiro rushed in and directed his attack at the Balancer, however while doing this, Haiiro, summoning another Polearm in his free hand, directed another slash at the Balancer's legs while his blackened wings once again formed themselves into spikes in order to intercept any counterattack that may occur. Though Zhōng had ignored the boy's retaliation almost entirely, with his lumbering arm crashing through the original weapon and coming down to intercede against the second, preventing Haiiro from cutting into his legs.